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Michael Young has 'reached out' to Red Sox

Yeah, we're back to this...

By Ben Buchanan
Harry How

Michael Young has 'reached out' to the Boston Red Sox according to Peter Gammons and oh God no not this again.

Young was bandied about as a possible option for the Red Sox at the trade deadline this past season. He wasn't a good one then, however, and he's not a good one now. It's not hard to explain why:

Michael Young is not a good baseball player anymore.

There! Simple as that! Done!

At 37 years old, this is no surprise. Over the last two seasons, Young has been worth a staggering -1.8 wins despite getting better than 1200 plate appearances split between the Rangers, Dodgers, and Phillies. He has hit just .278/.322/.381, good for a 90 OPS+, while his declining physical abilities have taken him from "bad shortstop" defensively to "not a shortstop," to "bad third baseman," to "no longer really a fielder unless you're already playing Miguel Cabrera at third at which point you've clearly given up trying anyways."

About the only thing Young now provides is the ability to hit lefties. Maybe. He wasn't actually particularly good at that last year, producing a 99 wRC+ against them. That could just be a bit of statistical noise, or it could be age catching up to him in that last area he still had to his name.

Whatever the case, he's certainly not good enough at the plate to make up for his non-existant glove. And what's worse, he doesn't really do much for the Red Sox in terms of their roster. At best he's the short end of a platoon split with Mike Carp when Carp actually has good career numbers against lefties to begin with. And that only comes up in a situation when the Red Sox have done nothing to improve their current situation at first base, meaning no Napoli, no Hart, not even Carlos Beltran in left field pushing someone else to first.

He's a bit player in a worst-case scenario, and probably doesn't warrant a roster spot over a more flexible defender even then.

Just...no.

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